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Alaska has joined a growing number of states that are considering cellphone restrictions in schools. The Alaska Board of Education has directed the state’s education department to create a policy to limit the use of cellphones in schools during class hours. Currently, there is no statewide cellphone policy in Alaska, and any restrictions must be set at the district or school level. Several already do that, including Wrangell middle and high schools. “The Stikine Middle School is cellphone, earbud free,” said Greg Clark, who serves as princ...
Wayne Johnson, the Georgia real estate developer who made a run earlier this year at buying the former Wrangell hospital property to build half-million-dollar condominiums, lost his bid for a U.S. House seat in his home state. Johnson, who pulled out of a deal with the borough in June, lost in the Nov. 5 election to 16-term U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop. As of Nov. 8, Johnson had 136,399 votes to 175,773 for Bishop. Johnson was endorsed by former president Donald Trump. It was the Republican’s second try at Congress. He failed to get past the R...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is working with the borough to put together a commemoration and remembrance event for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Nolan Center, marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly landslide that hit the community. More details about the remembrance and potluck will be announced this week. The slide started about 1,500 feet up the hillside the evening of Nov. 20, 2023, and flowed down the steep slope, destroying two homes at about 11.2-Mile Zimovia Highway and killing six people: Otto Florschutz, and Tim...
Almost 20 years after the legislation was signed into law, the Real ID deadline has a new final date: May 7, 2025. Starting then, Alaskans who want to use their drivers license to travel on commercial airlines will be required to present a Real ID to TSA as their form of identification. For those without a Real ID, other federally issued identification like passports, military IDs or Bureau of Indian Affairs cards will suffice. Wrangell residents without a Real ID — distinguishable by the star in the top-right corner — are in luck: Jayme How...
A 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision on sales taxes and a 2020 statewide initiative started by the Alaska Municipal League are benefitting Wrangell’s public treasury. The borough in the past fiscal year collected about $440,000 in sales taxes from purchases made online, by phone or mail and delivered to Wrangell households and businesses. That is up about 10% from the prior year and up substantially from $180,000 in revenues in 2021, the first year of the program. Before the court ruling, states and municipalities were blocked from collecting s...
Jamie Roberts is leaving Wrangell better than she found it. After 26 years on the island, Jamie is saying goodbye to a town that not only formed her, but that she helped form for the better. The Roberts family moved out of their 11.25-Mile home after the Nov. 20, 2023, landslide. Since then, they have been unable to find a tenable housing solution. Later this month, Jamie will join her husband, Greg, at their new home in Veneta, Oregon. The Wrangell chapter in the book of Jamie Roberts begins...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, alongside the borough, invite community members to come together at the Nolan Center for a one-year remembrance of last November’s deadly landslide. The event is set for 6 p.m. on the slide’s anniversary, Nov. 20. Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese said both the tribe and the borough want the structure of the event to be flexible in order to best meet people’s needs. There will be speeches to open the remembrance, but Reese said they are going to try and keep that portion of the evening short...
Almost a year after a landslide on the night of Nov. 20, 2023, blocked and destroyed parts of Middle Ridge Road, the U.S. Forest Service was able to clear two of the four locations where the slide crossed over the switchback-style road. The clearings allowed for the rescue of Stan Guggenbickler’s abandoned truck, which became trapped in the slide debris last November and remained there until the blockages were cleared last month. Despite the partial clearing, Wrangell District Ranger Tory Houser expects the road, as well as the Middle Ridge C...
The proposed summer 2025 Alaska Marine Highway System schedule shows the same level of service to Wrangell as in the past several years: one ship serving the mainline route, with one stop northbound and one southbound each week. The Columbia will stop in Wrangell northbound on Sundays, on its run from Bellingham, Washington, through Southeast, then turn around in Skagway and stop on its southbound route on Wednesdays. It’s the same schedule as the Kennicott is running this year. The state ferry system is scheduled to pull the Kennicott out o...
While planning and hoping for as much as $2 billion to replace its shrinking fleet of older ships over the next 20 years, the Alaska Marine Highway System also is looking at smaller things it can do to improve service in the near term. That will include Wi-Fi service on the ships; possibly more offerings or expanded bars; maybe even putting gift shops on the vessels. Federal money will pay for installing Wi-Fi. Increased bar service and possible gift shops will depend on whether the state ferry system can cover the costs, said Sam Dapcevich,...
NBA champion Chucky Brown should probably be back in Raleigh, North Carolina, preparing his St. Augustine’s University Falcons for their basketball season opener. He is their head coach, after all. But following a Zoom call with Wrangell Cooperative Association Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese earlier this fall, he realized that a trip to Wrangell was not something he could turn down. Brown will join a coalition of Team Hollywood athletes and officials in Wrangell on Monday, Nov. 11, to lead all-day programming for students. Team Ho...
Wrangell Sentinel publisher Larry Persily is part of a new nonprofit, the Alaska News Coalition, which formed this summer to help newspapers around the state find ways to adapt and survive in the changing world of online media, digital delivery and tightening finances. “As the landscape for news and information continues to change and evolve, it’s imperative for the well-being of our communities that local newspapers in Alaska stay alive. The Alaska News Coalition is committed to bringing together news outlets from around the state to fig...
There's not much on the walls of Mason Villarma's borough manger office. There is a minimalist whiteboard (purchased with his own money, he noted), a couple vintage maps of downtown, and some photos of fishing boats Villarma trolled on growing up. But one decoration stands out: a blown-up black and white image of an older man with a smile so infectious that even if Villarma's office's walls were decorated like Paris' Louvre, the image of the elder gentleman would stand out. "Who's that," I...
Wrangell’s strong support for Republican Jeremy Bynum helped push him over the 50% threshold as the apparent winner for the state House seat to represent Wrangell, Ketchikan and Metlakatla. As of early Wednesday morning, across the district, Bynum had 3,153 votes, 51.57%, to Agnes Moran’s 1,503 votes, 24.58%, and Grant EchoHawk’s 1,448, 23.68%. Though there are still more absentee and early votes left to count, it does not appear they would change the outcome of the race. In Wrangell, Bynum had 424 to EchoHawk’s 144 and Moran’s 89. Bynum, a...
By Sam Pausman Sentinel senior reporter If you weren't at the Nolan Center on Saturday afternoon, you must have been out of town. It seemed all of Wrangell piled into the center to witness the blessing of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. Led by the Wrangell Cooperative Association, the event was moved indoors after a persistent storm turned a cloudy afternoon into a rainy one. The event was attended by folks from Wrangell, folks from throughout Alaska and folks from Washington, D.C. Even Smokey...
Wrangell voters have walked into City Hall in record numbers to cast early ballots for the Nov. 5 statewide election. As of the end of the day Friday, Oct. 25, 147 people had cast ballots, said Sara Whittlesey-Merritt, who manages voting in town for the state Division of Elections. “It’s been a record for Wrangell,” said Whittlesey-Merritt, who has been working elections in the community for 30 years. The early voting numbers equal more than 20% of the town’s total turnout in the statewide elections of both 2020 and 2022. Wrangell is not alo...
Though the Wrangell School District has had its challenges filling various positions throughout the years, one position ⎯ the activities director ⎯ has seen yearly turnover with four people in the position in the past three years. Lifelong resident X'atshaawditee Tammi Meissner is the latest hire for the part-time contract, and she is committed to staying in the job "for the foreseeable future." Meissner, who also works as the community navigator for the Central Council of the Tlingit & Hai...
In an effort to recognize the building’s impact on the town, Parks and Recreation staff will dedicate the community center to Wrangell athletes of the past, present and future. The event will take place at noon on Nov. 9 and will be sandwiched between the fourth and fifth grade all-star basketball games against Petersburg. Devyn Johnson, Parks and Rec’s recreation coordinator, said that after the department’s recent upgrades and capital improvement projects, dedicating the community center felt like the right thing to do. “We’ve been putting a...
Borough officials hope to go out for bids as soon as this week for repairs to the sewage treatment plant deepwater outfall line which was damaged by a boat anchor in September. State and federal environmental officials “seem agreeable” to the borough’s plan to cut out the short, damaged section of 12-inch-diameter plastic pipe, then reconnect the undamaged pieces to restore flow, said Tom Wetor, Public Works director. Until the line is repaired, the borough will continue with its temporary solution of dumping treated water from the sewag...
This year’s take of 131 moose in the Wrangell-Petersburg area was down by 10 kills from last year’s harvest. But 131 was still good enough to rank as the third-highest harvest on record for the area, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The season ran Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Last year’s take of 141 moose in the Wrangell-Petersburg area was a record, passing the previous high of 132 in 2021, according to Fish and Game. The five-year average is just over 120 moose a year. Of this season’s 131 moose, 120 were legal and 11 illegal...
The assembly unanimously voted to raise annual boat launch fees for Wrangell’s harbors at the Oct. 22 meeting. The fees — which have remained stagnant for years — now mirror other Southeast towns’ equivalent fees. The annual launch permit for those with a boat stall will increase from $28 to $35. For those without a stall, the fee will increase from $55 to $70. Per the borough’s figures, the average annual Southeast launch fee for those without a stall is just over $74. The borough is also eliminating the commercial launch permit category...
There can be a lot of numbers in music. This is the 50th year of the Southeast Honor Music Festival and Tasha Morse's 17th year as Wrangell music teacher. More than 110 students from around Southeast spent 19 hours in full rehearsals at Music Fest. Three Wrangell students were selected for the event held Oct. 20-22 in Petersburg. All had to audition to win a spot, Morse explained. There is no judging at the annual fall event. "This one is just making music for music's sake," she said. Wrangell's...
The spring chili cook-off went so well, The Salvation Army decided to stack up the bowls and spoons and get ready to do it again Nov. 9. There will be prizes for the best chili. And while the event is a fundraiser for the community food pantry, it also is an opportunity for people to get together and socialize, said Salvation Army Capt. Chase Green. “There was a lot of excitement” at the April cook-off, which drew 18 entries, he said. “People asked, ‘When are you going to do it again?’” He hopes for 25 chili entries this time. The event is set...
Jeremy Bynum, Grant EchoHawk and Agnes Moran are running to fill the state House seat vacated by 10-year incumbent Dan Ortiz, who decided not to seek a sixth term. The election is Tuesday, Nov. 5. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the first count, the third-place finisher will be eliminated and voters who picked that candidate as their top choice will have their votes recounted using their second choice. Whoever has the most votes in that second count will win the seat...
This November, when the President steps out on Pennsylvania Avenue and looks toward the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, he's going to see a Christmas tree from the Tongass National Forest. Better yet, Wrangell High School students were tasked with keeping it alive. Members of the T3 program (Teaching Through Technology), a federally funded teaching nonprofit, teamed up with a local inventor to make sure the tree continues to absorb water on its nearly month-long journey from Wrangell to Washingto...